


When Loving You is All That I Have to Do

by mcgarrygirl78



Series: Crazy Love [22]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Friendship, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-01
Updated: 2013-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-23 04:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/617962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Count the ways…I don’t mind.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Loving You is All That I Have to Do

**Author's Note:**

> This story is written in the Thicker than Water universe where the BAU are kids and teens. This is Criminal Minds fic #950.

“Hey, I need you to help me out with something.” 

“What's up?” 

Jason looked up from the counter he was wiping down when Hotch came into the kitchen. The oldies station on the radio played Christmas songs but that didn’t seem to bother the older boy too much. He was actually getting used to nearly being festive this time of the year. Hotch went over to the fridge, got himself a glass of iced tea, and then sat at the kitchen table. In a few minutes Gideon joined him.

“I need to know when Megan and I should celebrate our anniversary. Look, you don’t even have to tell me this will be a weird and uncomfortable conversation. I'm already well aware of that. But we need to talk about it. I don’t know who else to talk to about it.”

“What are your options?” Jason asked.

“Well I don’t know if it should be the date of our first date. Maybe we should celebrate the first time she sent me a note and we walked into each other’s worlds. There’s also the day we acknowledged that we were a couple or even the first night she called me on the phone. There are too many dates…I have no idea how to navigate something like this.”

“Have you talked to Megan about it?”

“No way.” Hotch shook his head. “She might be upset if I don’t know. Sometimes girls have all these things in their head already. If I have to ask then she's going to think I don’t care about her.”

“Megan will never think you don’t care about her. The two of you have really built something strong over this past year.”

“So it should be from the day we met?” Hotch asked.

“I didn’t say that. I'm probably the wrong person to ask.”

“When is your anniversary with Emily?”

“We've never really discussed it.” Jason replied.

“That’s impossible.”

“No, it’s true. I mean we celebrate Christmas together; the day I asked her to be mine. We celebrate our birthdays and Valentine’s Day and all of that. Why do we need another date? We love each other everyday of the year.”

“I bet if you asked her though she’d have a date in mind.”

“I'm sure she would.” Jason nodded.

“And it doesn’t concern you that in not attaching a significant date to your being a couple that you’ve possibly upset or alienated her?” Hotch asked.

“Um…it’s starting to now just a little.”

“Emily and Megan aren’t the same. I mean, that’s a good thing but I think you get what I'm saying. Our relationship, milestones she and I have made individually and as a couple, are important to her.”

“Then ask her what she thinks, Aaron.”

“I just don’t want to get in any trouble.” he mumbled. “Sometimes guys get in trouble when they didn’t even mean to do anything. I understand that you can't help, I just thought I’d ask.”

“That’s the best answer I can give you.” Jason said. “You're a smart guy, I think you can slip it in there with subtlety.”

“She's smarter than me.” Hotch replied.

“All women are smarter than we are…it begins from the womb. It becomes more pronounced in puberty. Don’t let this discourage you. Let it bring out your A game.”

***

“Melinda is definitely getting married. She told the fiancé that I would be with the father and those plans couldn’t be canceled so I won't be there. She’s a mess…this will be a mess. I can only wish her the best though. She’s fought so hard for this.”

“Do you think it will last?” Hotch asked.

“Poor Evan has two options. He better be a decent husband or he’s going to have a widow on his hands. As a matter of fact,” Megan said smirking. “He doesn’t even have to be a good husband. He better just keep making that money.”

“If your mom isn’t going to be around you could just spend the vacation with me.”

“I’ll be there for Christmas and Christmas Eve.”

“Yeah but…” Hotch said.

“What's the matter, Aaron?” Megan asked.

“I just don’t want you to be alone.”

“Being alone is good sometimes. Anyway, I always know I can be with you and that makes me feel good on the inside. I just don’t want to overstay my welcome with your family. They’ve been kind enough to open the door. That doesn’t mean that I hang out until they throw my stuff on the porch. We have two weeks off school…we’ll see each other plenty. I promise.”

“There's Christmas and then New Year’s Eve.” Hotch said. “After that our anniversary falls somewhere in there before Valentine’s Day so…”

“What?”

“What, what?”

“You said our anniversary falls somewhere between the new year and Valentine’s Day.”

“Yeah, it does. I think it does.”

“What date are you talking about?” Megan asked.

“It could actually be a couple of dates.” Hotch replied. “We could go with the first day you sent me a note in English class. It could be the first night you called, the night of our first date…I don't know exactly.”

“I don’t really do anniversaries. They're silly. Not that I think that you're silly for trying to figure out when it is. That’s actually kind of sweet. It’s just another day of the year to be disappointed because the person who loves you, or supposedly does, will forget it. Even worse than that, some think it’s OK to take you for granted 364 days a year and then on that one night get you flowers and some jewelry or something and its golden. That's bullshit.”

“Oh.”

“We don’t need that. We’ve got enough real dates between us for you to lavish me with love, attention, and eventually jewelry.” 

“Eventually jewelry.” Hotch laughed a little.

“When you're ready of course. Aaron, we don’t have to be like everyone else. If you want an anniversary and it'll make you happy then pick a date, any date, but we’ve already got some great dates. There’s Valentine’s Day. Then my birthday is in April and yours is in November so that’s a nice spread over the year. Then there’s Christmas, which is more gifts. And we can't forget September 19th.”

“What's September 19th?” Hotch asked. He didn’t want to ask, didn’t want to get caught not knowing. But it was worse to pretend he knew what was going on when he had no idea. Megan was smart…he never would've been able to pull it off.

“Oh my God, I can't believe you don’t know what September 19th is.” Megan seemed mortified.

“Well I just…I hope you're not too upset but…”

“It’s the day the first Uncanny X-Men was issued; September 19, 1963. And you call yourself a fan Aaron. They might have to take away your comic book boy card for this.”

“You do this to me on purpose.” Hotch said.

“Sometimes.” Megan giggled.

“Its one of the things I love about you.”

“Count the ways…I don’t mind.”

“So we don’t need to have an anniversary?” he asked.

“Couples have 5 million different days they could pick for something like that. I don’t care about it. I just want to be with you. And buying me flowers or something on some day doesn’t matter as much as having my back through the real shit.”

“I’ll always have your back.”

“I know, and that’s why I love you. Also, you have the cutest butt.”

“I don’t like to brag but…”

“You're adorable, Aaron Hotchner.”

“I wasn’t even trying.”

“That’s why you are.” Megan said. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Do you want to hang out tomorrow; go out for some lunch?”

“That sounds good. Want me to make sure you have a good night’s sleep?”

“Megs…”

“What? You can say no if you want.”

“I never want to say no.”

“Is that a yes?” Megan asked.

“I'm not even in bed yet. It’s kinda early.”

“OK but you're not getting out of it tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow you can do it in person.” Hotch said.

“I might be a bad influence on you.” she said.

“It’s been a pleasure. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Goodnight, Aaron.”

“Goodnight.”

Hotch hung up the phone and went downstairs to find Jason. He was in his bedroom with Emily. At first Hotch wasn’t going to bother them but they were just watching TV. Jason told him that it wasn’t a problem.

“I don’t think we’re going to do the anniversary thing.” He said as he stepped over the threshold.

“The best thing about relationships is you get to write the rules for yours.” Jason said. “It’s not about what everyone else is doing.”

“Yeah. Hey, Megan’s mom isn’t going to be around much during the break so you don’t mind if she hangs out here, do you?”

“I don’t mind.” Emily raised her hand as she watched TV.

“Me neither.” Jason shook his head.

“Are you sure?” Hotch asked. “She doesn’t want to overstay her welcome and I never want to feel like you guys are forced to accept her.”

“You’ve accepted her, Hotch. We don’t mind doing the same.” his best friend said.

“OK.” Hotch smiled and his dimples were in full view. “Goodnight, you guys.”

“Goodnight, Hotch.”

He walked out of the room and back up to the attic. He and Megan weren't going to have an anniversary but that surely didn’t mean they weren't a couple. Hotch knew he still wanted to do something nice for their first year together. Maybe he would just send her the same note she sent him on that day. It wouldn’t be in the same class, wouldn’t mean the same thing; it would be something and mean something more. They were something more now.

***


End file.
